Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, and Hollow Men Essays

Façade of Civilization Exposed in Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, and Hollow Men

"Civilization", like "democracy" is something of a loaded term. For democracy there is a straightforward definition; a democracy is a society where the members of that society vote for their political leaders. "Democracy" can also refer to a set of social attitudes that individuals can possess. For instance, a snob possesses attitudes that can be described as "undemocratic" regardless of his or her participation in the political process of his or her own society. The term civilization literally means a society which has reached a high level of organization and development, which can be characterized by highly specified division of labor, monumental architecture, a redistributive economy, and a highly developed degree of literacy, among other things. The term "civilization" also refers to a set of attitudes and behavior that Western society has adopted as being consonant with the literal definition of civilization. A "civilized" individual is one who is well-educated, moral, virtuous, humanitarian, and possesses a degree of innate "nobility." In today's world these terms, and therefore the term "civilization", are understood throughout the world according to their European definitions, and therefore they are, to a certain degree, ethno-centric. This is because of the predominant role European civilization has played in shaping world civilization. With the exception of Japan, every place on earth has been occupied and administered by a European power for a significant period of time during the last five hundred years. Today the world's understanding of how nations should govern themselves is with constitutions patterned after European models, w...

... middle of paper ...

...ion", and that sense of loss is "the horror." For them the Apocalypse, the end of civilization had come, and when Kurtz meets his mortal end, it's not with a bang but a whimper.

Western Civilization has risen to produce what are arguably some of the highest, most virtuous ideals of mankind. The message that The Hollow Men and Apocalypse Now give is that in Western Civilization's quest for self-aggrandizement, those ideals get lost. What is left is but the empty façade, the hollow men, and in the hearts and minds of the hollow men, the apocalypse descends and "civilization" ends not with a bang but a whimper.

Click the button above to view the complete essay, speech, term paper, or research paper

Need Writing Help?

Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, and Hollow Men Essays
- Façade of Civilization Exposed in Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, and Hollow Men "Civilization", like "democracy" is something of a loaded term. For democracy there is a straightforward definition; a democracy is a society where the members of that society vote for their political leaders. "Democracy" can also refer to a set of social attitudes that individuals can possess. For instance, a snob possesses attitudes that can be described as "undemocratic" regardless of his or her participation in the political process of his or her own society.... [tags: Movie Film comparison compare contrast]

Essay Discussing Heart Of Darkness, The Hollow Men, and Apocalypse Now
- Relationship between Heart Of Darkness, The Hollow Men, and Apocalypse Now The Hollow Men is a poem by T.S. Eliot who won the Nobel Prize in 1948 for all his great accomplishments. The Hollow Men is about the hollowness that all people have; while Heart of Darkness is a story of the darkness that all people have. The poem written by Eliot was greatly influenced by Conrad and Dante. Some people may even think that WWI also influenced it. It was written after World War I and could be describing how people's beliefs had been eroded.... [tags: comparison compare contrast essays]:: 3 Works Cited

The Bright Side of the Darkness Essay
- ... The Hollow Men gives off the vibe that the men are trying to deal with the fear of death’s dream kingdom, even if that is through disguising their fear. In Apocalypse Now the disguises were also “deliberate” like those in The Hollow Men. For example when a masked Kurtz drops a decapitated head in Willard’s lap, Willard still knows that it is Kurtz even though he is wearing face paint. The disguise isn’t fooling anyone. Leading me to think the disguise wasn’t for Willard, but for Kurtz himself.... [tags: hardship, negative, positive, optimistic]:: 5 Works Cited

Searching For Meaning in Apocalypse Now Essay examples
- Searching For Meaning in Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now takes the audience into a tense and mystical journey through the Vietnam War. This long and agonizing journey is seen through the eyes of Captain Willard played by Martin Sheen. Sheen. Captain Willard is assigned to a mission that relies on him to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, who is played by Marlon Brando. Although Apocalypse Now is an examination of the many terrors of society that are connected to the Vietnam War, Coppola plays much of his film off Joseph Conrad's novel The Heart of Darkness.... [tags: Movie Film comparison compare contrast]

Heart of darkness Essays
- Joseph Conrad led an adventurous life and spent alot of his time at sea, most of his novels and short stories are loosely based on some of his experinces. His inspiration for Heart of Darkness came from his travels to the African Congo, where he witnessed the horrors of slavery and the grim realities of Imperialism. These experinces reflect throughout the book and give it a haunting realism. Now to the synopsis: Heart of Darkness is the tale of a man named Marlow, a seaman and wanderer. It is told through his eyes and from his POV using the 1st person narrative except for the begining where an unamed narrator and couple of men(Marlow included)gather in a boat on the river Thames and Marlow... [tags: essays research papers]

Essay on Heart of Darkness
- The Novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is about an Ivory agent, Marlow, who is also the narrator of his journey up the Congo River into the heart of Africa. Marlow witnesses many new things during his journey to find Mr. Kurtz. In Apocalypse Now, the narrator is Captain Willard, who is also on a journey to find Kurtz. The Kurtz in the movie however is an American colonel who broke away from the American army and decided to hide away in Cambodia, upon seeing the reality of the Vietnam War.... [tags: essays research papers]

Essay on Death and Creation in The Hollow Men
- Throughout the semester, we have read many poems by many well-known authors. All of these poems were worthy of the literary merit they received, but I would like to write this paper on a poem that is equally as wonderful. I will be writing this paper on T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men.” This is an incredibly poetic work that is just simply brilliant. I will be discussing how Eliot constantly uses death and creation images to strengthen the theme of the poem. Throughout this entire poem, there is an ever-present theme of death.... [tags: Hollow Men Essays]

Emptiness in The Hollow Men Essay
- Emptiness in The Hollow Men After Eliot had published The Waste Land, he felt as though he had not been able to fully convey the sense of desperation and emptiness in that work. Beginning with "Doris’s Dream Songs" and "Eyes I Last Saw in Tears," he explored these themes, eventually uniting all such poems in The Hollow Men. The end product is a work that, unlike The Waste Land and its ultimate chance for redemption, has only the indelible emptiness of the hollow men as its conclusion. The hollow men are those who, in life, did not act on their beliefs; they resisted any action at all, and as a result stagnate eternally in "the Shadow," a land in between heaven and hell, completely i... [tags: Hollow Men Essays]:: 7 Works Cited

Essay about Futility of Life Exposed in T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men
- Futility of Life Exposed in T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men The 'Hollow Men', by T.S Eliot, is a reflection on the emptiness, futility and misery of modern life. It is also a reflection on the problems involved in human communication, and on the meaning (or lack of it) to life. Eliot uses religious and desert symbolism, biblical and literary allusions, repetition, parody and deliberately sparse, controlled language to convey the themes of the poem. The poem opens with two epigraphs - "MISTAH KURTZ - HE DEAD" and "A penny for the Old Guy".... [tags: Hollow Men Essays T S Eliot Papers]:: 6 Works Cited

Darkness and Desperation in the The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliott Essay
- In the poem “The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot immediately gives his work a tone of darkness and desperation. Eliot also uses references of works from Dantes, Julius Caesar, and Joseph Conrad. These three men majorly influenced Eliot on his writings spiritually and intellectually. Eliot was going through a rough patch in his life during with his wife during the time that he wrote “The Hollow Men.” He reveals his views on contemporary life and uses the poem as a cry for relief from his personal troubles (“Explanation of: ‘The Hollow Men’ by T.S.... [tags: death, fear, whispering]:: 4 Works Cited